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Searching/Browsing Cases – using the Westlaw Key Number System Table of Contents Introduction ...... 2 Helpful Guides on Legal Research ...... 2 How Find Topics and Key Numbers ...... 3 Searching the Key Digest System by topic ...... 3 Running a Search to Find a West Key Number ...... 5 Using case headnotes to find similar cases ...... 6 Secondary Sources library references...... 8

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Introduction Westlaw indexes cases by the legal issues reviewed by the authoring judges and assigns topics and key numbers from the West Key Number system to those legal issues. These legal issues are also summarized in a headnote. The headnote is written by Westlaw’s legal editors and should not be cited in legal papers.

There are over 400 topics in the West Key Number system and subdivisions within those topics. Using the West Key Number system is an efficient way to search because:

 Westlaw editors have read all published New York cases and organized them by subject  You do not need to think of all possible combinations of keywords to find cases  Once you find a useful case, you can search the topics and key numbers in the headnotes to that case to find similar cases

The phrase key number refers to a printing convention when West issued print digests. The topics and subdivisions were marketed as “keys to American law.” The online versions may use a key image or use the abbreviation k.

Helpful Guides on Legal Research:

 Fields for Cases – Westlaw User Guide  What Are Legal Issues  What is the Purpose of Legal Research?

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How Find Topics and Key Numbers Searching the Key Digest System by topic 1. From the opening Westlaw page on the All Content tab click Key Numbers to link to the West Key Number System

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2. In this exercise, you want to find cases on Individualized Education Programs, IEPs. Click on the topic 141E Education.

3. Subtopic (G) Children with Disabilities, Special Education k860-k909 looks promising. Click on (G). 4. There is a key number 862 Individual education program. 5. Click on that key number and notice that there 568 federal cases and 17 New York cases. 6. US Supreme Courts are listed first, the most recent first when sorting by date. 7. You can also sort by most cited 8. From the left-hand navigation bar, you can narrow by jurisdiction or date.

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Running a Search to Find a West Key Number You can search the entire West Key Number Digest by a terms and connectors search, or a natural language search to get a list of topics and key numbers where the terms occur.

1. In this example, a term and connectors search has been run to find discussion of IEPs elsewhere in the Digest. There are over 1,700 cases scattered throughout the digest. Scanning the topic and key numbers and the headnote summaries is an efficient way to locate useful cases.

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Using case headnotes to find similar cases If you have found a good case, Westlaw’s headnotes and keycite will help you find similar cases. In this case Semel v Ambach, 118 AD2d 385 (3d Dept, 1986), the headnotes summarize a significant point of law. Below the headnote, a blue hyperlink lists four cases that have cited that headnote. You also have the option of linking to the two headnotes digest entries to find all of the Westlaw’s indexed cases dealing with exhaustion of administrative remedies.

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List of 4 cases citing headnote (this list is under the Citing References Tab)

The topic Administrative Law K 229 Exhaustion administrative remedies has 991 cases

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The topic Education K 893 Exhaustion of remedies has 398 cases

Secondary Sources library references  New York Jurisprudence 2d includes links to West’s Key Number topics links

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 McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated under the Citing Reference tab list useful Westlaw topics and key numbers.

 Many Westlaw treatises includes references to Westlaw’s key numbers under the topic References